Poultry-feeding device.



G. W. KNOLL, JR. POULTRY FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11 1916- v 1 239,404, Patented Sept. 4, 1917.

G. W. KNOLL, JR.

POULTRY FEEDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11.1916.

Patented Sept. 4, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 "ll-Ill" PAENT UFFTQ.

GEORGE W. KNOLL, JR, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

POULTRY-FEEDING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 4t, 1917..

Application filed July 11, 1916; Serial No. 108,671.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. KNOLL,

Jr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Poultry-Feeding Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention appertains to poultry feeders and has for an object to provide a structure embodying improved mechanism for automatically distributing poultry feed or grain at a predetermined time. 7

Another object of the inventionresides in a poultry feeder wherein is provideda re ceptacle for the reception of a specified quantity of feed, an automatic timing device. being provided in conjunction with the receptacle for permitting the'contents thereof to be discharged at a predeterminedtime, said timing device having connection with a rotary feed distributer, upon which the feed will fall when being discharged from the receptacle, the movement of said distributor being controlled by a releasing element operated by said timing device.

A further object of the invention resides in a poultry feeder having the above men tioned characteristics and which is provided with improved means for distributing poultry feed in a uniform manner over a circulararea immediately surrounding said feeder. -Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination ofelements, and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction herein described and the scope of the application of which willbe indicated in the following drawings.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown the preferred embodiment of my invention, a

Figure 1 is a perspective View of a'poultry feeder comprising the present invention, 1

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken through the same,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinal sectional View, w

F'g. Lisa top plan view of the feed dis; tributingpan, w

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken through the spring motor mechanism,

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 66 of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of Fig. 3.

Similar characters of reference denote corresponding parts throughout all the views of the drawing.

Referring more particularly to the pre ferred embodiment of the present invention, the poultry feeder illustrated consists of a supporting frame 5 in the form of connected metallic bars, braced to provide a rigid structure. The lower extremities of the bars are curved torest upon a suitable support, while the upper extremities thereof are secured to a housing or hopper casing 6, said housing consisting of a base 7, side walls 8 and an inclined top 9, the latter being provided with a hinged door 10, which is disposed immediately above a feed receiving hopperor receptacle 11, situated within the housing 6.

The hopper preferably consists of a funnel shaped structure which is adapted to receive a predetermined amount of poultry feed, the latter being inserted into the'hopper upon opening the door 10. The lower fimnel shaped mouth 12 of the hopper terminates in alinement with a discharging pipe 13 secured to the base 7 of the housing 6. Interposed between the mouth 12 r of the hopper and the discharge pipe 13 is a sliding trap door 14:, the latter being normally employed to prevent the feed contained within the hopper from being discharged therefrom into the pipe 13, by covering the discharge opening of the hop per. The door is provided with mechanism, to be hereinafter fully set forth, to reciprocate the same to a position clear of the discharge opening of the hopper whereby the feed contained in the latter will be emptied into the pipe 13. l

The door 14 is preferably made in the form'of a metallic plate and is provided with upturned edges 15, Fig.7, which are received within guide grooves 16 formed The pawl 3% is utilized to relievethe spring;

to the hopper 11. Situated within the housing 6 is an ordinary alarm clock 18, which is provided with a shaft 19 capable of rotating at predetermined periods, ,the clock:

being of the usual construction and'will therefore not require a detailed descriptlon.

Mounted on the-actuating shaft. 19 of the.

alarm clock is a wheel 20, which is secured in a rigid manner to said actuatingshaft, so that when the latter is revolved, upon the movement ofthe alarmmechan-ism, the wheel 20 will be revolveda periphery of the wheel 20 is a cable 21 which is-trained oven suitable pulleys 225 and is connected to one extremity of, the: door 14,

whereby when the alarm clock 18 is throwninto operation, the wheel QOwillbe revolved,

thus imparting a pull to the cable- 21 there by causing the withdrawal of the door -14=- from its position blocking the; passage of grain or feed into the discharge openingyl3, so that feed will be delivered from :the hope per to a: distributing mechanism to be hereina-fter described.

The feed distributing mechanism preferably consists of-a distributing? pan 24 located immediatelybeneath the-;discharge pipel3- and in axial alinement with the latter; The-Y pan 24iis mounted upon avertica-l shaft 25r journaled in bearings 26, which a-resccured-to the supporting frame-5. The shaft25=isprovided with pinion 27 designed to meshawith an enlarged drive gear28 driven by ia spring."

motor-29, themotor:29 being mounted ina frame 30 secured to the supporting frame" 5. Said motorimay beof anydesirablecone struction and is designed to impart: movement to the gear 28,..however, m tlus-mstance, it hasbeen shown to comprise adriver shaft3l supported, for rotation, in bear to cause a rotation of the: distributing; pan: 7

lever 47,- pivot/ally mounted aszat 43- to a:-

241'.v The pawl :34- is normally-pressed into engagement with the teethof the-ratChct wheel 33 by means of=a spring 37 secured tonthe casing 35, and is positioned within the! internal chamber 38- formed therein.

36 of strainsarisinggfrom: the momentum of the enlarged geartQS, at it yw llv be seen:-

u that wheinthe spring136- ceases-touunwind the gear 28 will. beyrapidly revolving, and

theratchct and pawl construction '33 and 34: :is provided-inorder that-thegear 28 may continue to revolve, independentlyofnthe' Secured to the spring 36, thus the rotation of the gear 28 will not be immediately retarded when the sp ring 36 ceases to unwind thereby avoiding strainsa-or stresses upon said spring, as Will be obvious.

V The distributing pan 2% is of peculiar eon- .st-ru'ctiong. and issprovided -with means for distributing feed received from the hopper 11 in a-uniformly scattered manner over a circular area about the feeder, of which the pan-241s the center. Said pan comprises-a d-iski like body39 toi which the upper end of theshaft 25 is secured, and the disk has mounted on the upper .face-thereofa. conical. member {idwhicluis disposedimmediately so below and, in alinement witlr ithe diseharge pipe 13," so that feed delivered by the pipe 13 will fall upon the conical member: 40 wherebythG' SEUUG will beruniformly dis tributed; over: the-face ofathedisk .39.- Tangentially positioned ribsil radiate from the. member-401w the outer periphery of the disk, 39 and are employed to assist in-distributin g the feed over the varea surrounding: said idistributing pane It will be apparent 9,0 that the feed-deposited uponthe pan fl t-will be discharged therefrom by; the action of centrifugal force,; generated by the'rapid-ly revolving distributing pan and that thedis-v tribution of feed from; the pan, lW'lll be aecomplished-in an eflieientmanneriwhich per-7 'Illl'ES the feedto be :widely; scattered, so that.

thesame-will notifall; in a: concentrated man ner in, one; spot or plaeeadjacentto the feeder. I

The-motor i 29; may; be :woundby: actuating: the-sh'aft31 in a specified directionand;saidi motor will be retained in its wound positiom by the action ofiaireleasing; trigger l2i'pivotallylmounted upon the base '7 of'ithe housh1g6, saidytrigger beingvprovided. with a;. depending'arm 45 whichunorm-ally cooper:- ates; with one of theribs 41 of the distribute ing' pan in such aimanner that the: rotation 1 of thelatter: will be hindered, thereby, pre-.- venting -thea-motor 29 from unwinding." In order to permitrthevpan iQA tQ' I'Q VOlVGflmT mediately. before feed is deposited-thereon, the trigger 42.;has connectedato the arm 47! thereof a; flexible cable 45,which is trained oversuitable pulleys 46 ?ini orden that thesamemay be connectedwith aspring pressed:

being elevated the cable 45 will she pulledlBYO Lesa-ace to oscillate the lever 42, so that the extremity 4E3thereof will be drawn out of engagement with the ribs ll of the distributing pan, thus permitting the latter to be rotated by the action of the motor 29. One important feature ofthe-present invention resides in the fact that the distributing pan 2a is in motion before feed is deposited thereon, in order that the distributing of the feed will be facilitated, this being accomplished by the relatively quick operation of the lever 4L7 and the trigger 42 and by their points of connection with the cable 45. This construction enables the pan tobe in motion by the time the slack found in the cable 21 will have been taken up by the rotation of the wheel 20. After the cable 21 is drawn taut the door 14 is moved to a position clear of the discharge mouth 12 of the hopper 11.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the objects of the present invention have been achieved and all the advantageous features above mentioned are, among others,

present. The device is simple in construetion, of relatively few parts which are so construct-ed as not to be liable to become out of order; is positive in operation and the mechanism thereof will be automatically thrown into operation without requiring the services of an operator. The feeder requires little attention and will efficiently distribute the feed by a more uniform scattering of the same over a given area, than can be accomplished when manually distributed.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments maybe provided without departing from the scope.

thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in' a limiting sense.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new and patentable is 1. In an automatic poultry feeder, a feed receiving receptacle, a door movably disposed within said receptacle, means for imparting a horizontal movement to said door at predetermined periods, a rotatable feed distributing pan cooperating with the feed receptacle and adapted to receive the feed discharged from the latter, a release mechanism having contact with said distributing pan, and means for operating said pan upon the disengagement of the release mech anism from said distributing pan.

\ 2. In an automatic poultry feeder, a feed receiving receptacle, a door movably disposed within said receptacle, means for imparting a horizontal movement to said door at predetermined periods, a rotatable feed distributing pan cooperating with the feed receptacle and adapted to receive the feed discharged from the latter, a release mechanism having contact with said distributing pan, and means for operating said pan upon the disengagement of the release mechanism from said distributing pan, said last mentioned means being controlled by the door operating means.

3. In an automatic poultry feeder, a feed receptacle, a door for controlling the dis charge of the feed from said receptacle, means for operating said door at predetermined periods, an automatic rotatable feed distributing pan, a release mechanism carried by the feed receptacle and coacti.ng with the feed distributing pan for locking the same against movement, and means connected with the release mechanism for causing the release of the same from the feed distributing pan simultaneously with the operation of said door.

4. In an automatic poultry feeder embodying a feed receptacle, a movable door for controlling the discharge of the feed therefrom, door operating means, a rotatable feed distributing pan, means for controlling the movement of said pan, and means connected with the latter mentioned means and having connection with the door operating means for imparting an oscillating movement of the former upon the opening of said door.

5. In an automatic poultry feeder embodying a feed receiving receptacle, a door for controlling the discharge of the feed from said receptacle, operating mechanism for said door, a rotatable feed distributing pan, a member pivotally connected with the feed receptacle and contacting with the feed distributing pan for holding the latter against rotation, and means having connection with said member and with the door operating mechanism, for releasing said member from the distributing pan upon the actuation of the door operating mechanism.

6. In an automatic poultry feeder embodying a feed receiving receptacle, a door for controlling the discharge of the feed from said receptacle, operating mechanism for said door, a rotatable feed distributing pan, a member pivotally connected with the feed receptacle and contacting with the feed distributing pan for holding the latter against rotation, and spring tensioned means having connection with said member and with the door operating mechanism, for releasing said member from the distributing pan upon the actuation of the door operating mechanism.

7 In an automatic poultry feeder embodying a feed receiving receptacle, a door for controlling the discharge of the feed from said receptacle, operating mechanism for said door, a rotatable feed distributing pan, a member pivotally connected with the feed receptacle and contacting with the feed distributing pan for holding the latter against mechanism, for oscillatingthe member to release the sameiirom engagement Withthe feed distributing paniupcn actuation of the door operating mechanism.

8. In an automaticpoultry feeder a feed receiving receptacle, a door for controlling the dischargeof the feed'fromsaid receptacle, a timing device, means operatively connecting. the door with said timing. device, a -rotatable feed distributing tank, 21';l8VGI' having. connection With the timing device, meansfor controlling the movement of said "feed-idistributinm. Jan and means connecting the latter mentioned means with said le-o ver for operatively releasing the same upon the actuatiouof said door.

9. In an automatic poultry feeder a feed receiving: receptacle, a door for controlling the dischargeof the feed from said recep tacle, a; tii'ningdevice, moans operatively connecting the door with said timingqdevicc, arotatable feed distributing pan, a lever having connection with the timing device, means for automatically operating said le- Ver, means for controlling the movement of saidofeed distributing pan; and means connecting the. latter mentionecl:lmeans With saidleverfor operatively releasing the same upon the actuation of said door:

10.-.In an automatic feedingxlevice of the class describecha feed receptacle, armovable door. controlling the feed discharge mouth of said receptacle, automatic means -for moving: said door away from said discharge mouth at a predetermined.period to permit feed to be discharged from said receptacle, a horizontally disposed rotatable feed distributorcommunicating-With said discharge mouth and adapted to receivefeed discharged from said receptacle Whensaid door is clear of the mouth of the latter, tangent-ially disposed ribs positioned upon said feed distribute1',-means cooperating-With ribs to normally prevent the rotation of said dis tributer and said distributer. controlling means havingconnection With theautomatic meansfor movingsaid door and said con nection being. of such character that said distributer will be in a state-of rotation before said movable dooris operated;

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature.

GEORGE W. KNOLL, JR.

Copies ofl-thispatent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressinglthe Commissioner of latents,

Washington, D. C. p 

